Bowling in the Basement

Charlie got a bowling set for Christmas and it's pretty entertaining.

Christmas Pictures

On Christmas Eve we usually open a present from Mom and Dad and it's usually pajamas. Here's our cool crew modeling their new pjs.

Christmas morning was filled with excitment but we never got a group picture. So, here they are with some of their favorite presents.
Adrian got a BYU football uniform and he was so excited. The good news is he could wear it with pride after the Las Vegas bowl!

Charlie didn't even know what this was when he opened it but it turns out he really loves it. It's a glow-in-the dark, laser-guided, zero-gravity, remote control car. It is way cool and the best thing is that it actually works. It can drive up our walls and it really does follow that little laser pointer.

The girls got cabbage patch dolls with pretty hair that they can style. I think they're adorable and I guess I'm a little sentimental because I know I won't be able to get them dolls for Christmas very much longer. They do love them and Donald has played with them a little himself. It'll be good practice for him with the new baby on the way. We'll have to work on his technique a little since he likes to throw them across the room and slam their noses on the wall for time outs. He's very strict.

Donald mostly got books. In fact every picture we have of him, besides this one, is with books. He really is a book worm but it turns out he is also a TV bug and his favorite movie is Cars. We have had it recorded on our DVR for a long time but now he has his own copy so we can watch it all the way to Virginia. Rebecca got Monsters VS. Aliens and it turns out Donald really likes that movie too.

Dan and I had a great Christmas. We agreed to keep our gifts for each other small because our real Christmas gift is our new van. Dan got me some terrific microfiber socks and they're really warm. He also gave me a couple of kitchen gadgets that will come in very handy. I gave him some headphones for his Ipod and it turns out that the headphones you get when you buy an Ipod really stink. The ones I bought him are awesome. I was listening to them while I was doing the dishes the other night and I could completely tune out my entire family even if they were standing right next to me talking to me. It was awesome. I could never wear them unless there's another adult in the house because I would have no idea what anyone was doing.

I hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas too!

Thanks Uncle Wii

Here's the kids' reaction to their present from Uncle Wii (Craig) and Aunt Rebekah. The actual video is longer, but we had to edit it to fit here, so we picked the best part of the reaction.

There are more pictures that we'll post later, but we wanted to put this up.

Merry Christmas Eve

10 fingers, 1 toe!

She's eleven!! I told her to hold up eleven fingers and this is what she came up with.

Shari picked out a sweater for her birthday and Rebecca liked it so much we went back and got her one for her birthday. They were so cute going to school in matching sweaters!

She also got a bathrobe and she wants to wear it all the time like I wear mine all the time.

Here she is with her 11 candles on her cake. I can't believe it. Did I mention she's 11!!

New Addition

Here is a new addition to our family in preparation for our new addition coming June 24 or thereabouts. We bought it last Friday and it's really great to drive. Most importantly it has 8 seats.

If you're wondering why I didn't take a picture of our actual van let me just tell you it is too cold to stand outside long enough to take a picture.

Santa's Elves

Charlie had a Polar Express day at school where they got to do Christmas stuff all day. This is what he had to show for it.

I love his kindergarten teacher!

Christmas Decorations

Thanksgiving

We had a terrific Thanksgiving thanks to the head chef in our family. Dan is an expert at grilling so why not grill a turkey? He used a dry rub that seasoned the turkey like pastrami and then grilled it. It turned out so good. It made all my little side dish contributions seem pretty simple.

Donald loved the idea of grilling for Thanksgiving because he wants to be outside all the time. He especially loves a chance to be in the snow.

The boys had fun playing with our neighbor Logan although they stayed in their own respective yards.

Here is the feast. Everyone really enjoyed it, except Adrian and Charlie could have done without the green beans. Donald wasn't much in favor of any of the Thanksgiving fare. He wouldn't even taste the potatoes and the faces he made over the green beans and stuffing were less than thankful. He didn't even eat a roll.

Here is our little Cinderella. She was so thankful her Dad and I worked so hard making a nice dinner she didn't even mind doing the dishes. Shari loaded the dishwasher and the boys helped with wiping and sweeping. It was quite the family effort.

While the after dinner work was getting done Dan and I practiced for our Pie and Rock Band party at the Hunter's. It was so much fun to see everyone and enjoy my favorite thing about thanksgiving, PIE. Donald finally found a Thankgiving food he likes when he tried whip cream and chocolate pudding pie.

It was a great day and we have so much to be thankful for.

Our Contribution

Today was the Primary Program. It was so much fun to watch. It was really fun to sit with just Donald. He enjoyed waving at everyone on the stand too. We dolled him up today and boy did he know it. When I first put on his little outfit he said, "I don't like it." Apparently he got used to it and decided he looked good. I want to know who taught him to pose like this.

Everyone did a really good job on their parts. Rebecca gave a talk about father's. It was very sweet. Charlie said his part very clearly and then ended it with "Thank you Thank you Thank you." Of course everyone laughed which is exactly what he was going for. I guess we didn't warn him sternly enough about not being silly. We decided we're going to tell all future primary presidents that he's not allowed to be in the primary program! That'll teach him.

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We celebrated my birthday on Sunday because on this birthday night we are at an airport waiting to fly to DC. Dan made my Sunday celebration really wonderful. He made me a mosaic of our pictures in the form of a picture taken of the temple on our wedding day. It's really neat and the kids love finding pictures of themselves in it. In fact, you might find a picture of yourself in it if you look closely.

Dan got me Cold Stone cheese cake ice cream for both my ice cream and cake. I just wasn't in the mood for cake and with all the Halloween Candy in our house I didn't really want more sweet stuff around. We had some left over cupcakes from Shari's birthday so I did blow out some candles.

Here is my mosaic hanging on our living room wall. Dan also got me some warm slippers, earrings, and a new journal. It was a fun day.

A Little More Halloween/Birthday

The girls dressed up their little doll like a witch and handed him a wand one night. He thought he was all powerful!

Here he is casting a spell on the fridge. I think he's hoping for ice cream.

On Friday night Shari got to have her birthday late over. It was really fun.

9 yr old Angel

For Shari's birthday we planned on visiting her cousins in their brand new house for the first time. She was looking forward to it all week. The night before her birthday Donald developed the croup so when we woke her up the next morning I was worried about delivering the bad news that Donald had ruined her birthday plans. She didn't say a word about herself and only asked how he was doing. She even said, "We'll get to have a family party." She has such a wonderful way of looking at the bright side of life.
For her birthday breakfast we had donuts and she gave half of the one she wanted to Rebecca. For her special birthday XBOX turn she chose a game that everyone could play and didn't even complain when they didn't do it her way. In fact, she made an effort to let them all play the places they wanted. She's pretty amazing.

She was super excited to get her first big legos set. She's always finding her way into the boys room to build theirs. She was also thrilled to get the Homeward Bound movies and her very own robe to keep her warm this winter.

I have to say this really is the face of an angel. She helped me make her birthday cake and her birthday dinner. I love her so much.

I hope her wish comes true.

Halloween Fun

We had the best Halloween this year. We threw a big party and invited lots of cousins and some Aunts and Uncles. It was so much fun. My sister took some great pictures and they are featured on her website http://sharidphotography.blogspot.com.

Here is Donald enjoying his first time trick or treating.

Here is his first treat.

Pumpkin Carving

We actually participated in this glorious tradition a week ago but it's taken me this long to post pictures. First of all our pumpkins were right out of our garden and they smelled so good! It was really amazing. The whole time we were carving them we were all breathing deeply. It was a really yummy melon smell.
Here is Dan working hard and Charlie presiding over the pumpkin carving tradition. This is Charlie's favorite time of year.



Donald wanted to make silly faces with his brothers and sisters for the pictures. They are all so cute.

Family Night Activity

This is Donald's new favorite activity.

All Day News

I actually have news today. I wasn't too impressed with Charlie's kindergarten teacher so I tried to get him switched out of the class on the first day of school. The principal really wanted me to wait and see how things went.
Well, I waited and on Tuesday I did some volunteering in his classroom and realized that it was time to make the switch. Charlie's so structured. He makes up rules for all of us because he NEEDS rules. Just the other day before dinner he was making up the new rule that only one person could get out a red cup at a time (he was getting out a red cup) so that the person who has a red cup doesn't get confused with other people's cups. It was so hilarious and unfortunately I already had a cup out so that would have meant his rule would prevent him from getting out his chosen cup. The point is he thrives on order.
His kindergarten teacher seemed to feel discipline and order brought negativity into the classroom. You can imagine how that group of kids had a hey day with that. Charlie just became more and more frustrated and took the law into his own hands several times.
I went into the principal on Wednesday and said it wasn't working out so I wanted Charlie to be with a different teacher. He told me that we'd have him switch at the beginning of the next term which is not for a week and a half.
This morning on my way into school the principal pulled Charlie and I aside and said Charlie could move into the all day kindergarten class today!!!
I wanted to cry tears of joy when I walked into Mrs. Gibson's classroom. She has seating assignments and discipline charts/plans/rules. She spoke directly to Charlie and gave him specific directions! When they do center's its amazing. They have an assignment at each center and then when it's time to rotate they put it in a folder! and take that with them to the next center where they accomplish another academic task. In Charlie's take home folder I got more work from him just today than I've gotten the entire year from his former teacher.
I just wanted to share this amazing news.
I don't want to make it sound like I'm glad to get rid of Charlie for the whole school day, but I do think I'll survive the lonely afternoons as best as I can.

Magic

Yesterday I was bugging the kids to get their jobs done and Charlie was stalling so he was imagining how great it would be to have magic. He said, "Mom, if I had magic I would make all my toys do my job and straighten my room." I said, "Then how would you become a good and useful person?" He said, "I'd use magic and make myself a good and useful person!"
Wouldn't magic be great?

An Anniversary I Forgot

August 29 passed me by and I didn't even remember that it's been 4 years since Hurricane Katrina blew over me and my little crew. I wasn't worrying about anything at all that day and I didn't spare a thought for that wild time in my life. Today I was looking through old pictures and I realized that it was 4 years ago that the entire Gulf Coast was a complete wreck and people were lucky if they had water, food, and shelter. Thankfully I was one of the lucky ones.
I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of the storm damage at the time because I didn't want to remember. Finally in December I dragged the kids down to our little beach and took a few pictures. Keep in mind, this is a little over 3 months after the storm. I never did take pictures of any of the places I loved and lost. It was like taking pictures of a corpse.

This is a view of the Biloxi casinos and I guess I would have to have a before picture to appreciate the after. It was such a mess, though.

This was a little seafood store on front beach in Ocean Springs.

This was the apartment complex I lived in a year before the storm. We were even on the 3rd floor. I was glad I wasn't there during Katrina.

This is my little crew our first day returning to church after the storm. I included this picture because I can't believe how young they were. Rebecca was 6, Shari was 4, Adrian was 3, and Charlie was 1.

First Day of Kindergarten

The first day of school for everyone else was Monday and I didn't have my camera with me. They all looked lovely and were super excited. We are really happy with Rebecca's 5th, Shari's 3rd and Adrian's 2nd grade teachers. Today was the kindergarten welcome and Charlie jumped out of bed this morning and said, "It's the first day of school!!" He was so excited. He got dressed in his "cool" outfit and couldn't wait to go.
Here is my big kindergartner.


Adrian and Charlie had to do a silly pose for me.
They also did a cool pose.

I didn't get pictures of the girls this morning but they got cute back to school haircuts. Can you tell these heads apart? I have a hard time doing it.

They are happy and we get to curl their hair under or out every school day. They look so cute.

I'm getting back into the swing of things. I don't get much sympathy from Dan because he always gets up at 5 a.m., but 7:15 is early for me!!

A Visit and Another Trip.

I feel so lucky to have had Ane here visiting for a few days last week. I know it's a long way from Chicago to Salt Lake but I'm so glad they came. Here she is right in my very own living room with her doll baby Emerson. He's so sweet. You had to pinch him to make him cry and even then he wouldn't cry much.
After our Ane visit I went down to Mesa, AZ where all my sisters and brother's met up to celebrate Donald and Shannon getting sealed in the temple. It was so amazing to be there and so wonderful to spend some time with Donald and Shannon. The family stayed at a fun vacation home with a pool and everything. I should have taken more pictures of the scenery and vacationy stuff but I couldn't get enough of the people I was with. I wish I had a picture of everyone but this is who happened to be there when I had my camera out.
Here is my nephew, Isaac, after we gave him a bath. He was a super traveling buddy and complained less than I did on the airplane.

Here is Katie, Dallin, and Ashley. She makes a terrific superman. She acts like she owns the world and I'm certain she can do anything she puts her mind to.

Here is my dad running away from me with a camera. It looks all action packed and of course my dad is action packed.

Here's Katie all gorgeous. I hope you had a happy birthday, Katie. I am so glad we got you all there for the party.

Here's my studious sister. Amanda is finishing her Bachelor's degree so this is her bachelor degree face. You can actually see her getting smarter!

This is Amanda's daughter, Deya. She's not so studious but she does have a good imagination. While sitting at the airport we decided to use our forks as dinglehoppers instead of utensils. It was great fun and I think everyone sitting around us may have lost their appetite.

Aunt Jessie needed a little help with the dinglehopper as well.

When Amanda and I got home the kids were all waiting for us with signs up everywhere welcoming us home! Dan made a spectacular dinner and the house was so clean. I'm so thankful he was at home with the kids which means I didn't have to worry a bit. He made the party possible for me.

Summer is winding down this week. School starts on August 24th. Hopefully we can make the most of it.